Subreen’s Garden
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This project began in May 2023 and will continue through 2025. As an independent production we need your help to complete the film!
All donations go through our fiscal sponsor, Shape, and are tax deductible!
The Story
Subreen Dari’s life in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio can be seen as a reflection of the American Dream — a home for her family, a strong education for her children, and a backyard with a garden bed to grow. Her story, however, is not just the American’s dream; it is a reflection of the Palestinian cause.
As a mother, nurse, world-class athlete, and Palestinian her identity has been challenged for who she has dared to be; for who she was born to be. Our film explores a portrait of Subreen, how she sees herself and her place within the community around her, that spans the contexts of family, land, and heritage.
The timing of the film comes at a crossroads of major events in Subreen’s life and her family’s homeland; the story’s pace will be set alongside the growth of her first garden that she calls her own.
Palestinian Voices Unite
Subreen’s Garden will feature voices from Subreen’s family, local community, and diaspora as the film explores the bonds of Palestinian identity, specifically within American Society.
An attack on Palestinian cultural institutions since the Nakba in 1948 has rooted the cinematic language of Palestinian stories in a history connected to catastrophe. The result of having little representation of the rich history of Palestinians in the United States has created a barrier in the media for Americans and Palestinians to envision the contributions and boundless opportunities available to the Levantine people outside of traditionally projected roles.
Importance
The Palestinian perspective has historically been absent and suppressed in American and Western media. The disparity in opportunities for visibility has created a physical and social void of expression in a globalized world in which American media influence is unrivaled. In the ever-persistent struggle of survival that Palestinian identity endures, Subreen’s Garden brings forth a portrait from within the Diaspora in a docu-story cinema format.
Director’s Statement
Kerem Gençer is documenting this Palestinian story with the intention of fostering community conversation, inspiring cross-cultural understanding, and celebrating his close friend, Subreen.
In the ever-persistent struggle that Palestinian identity endures within Western media and society, this documentary brings forward a Palestinian-American perspective that will find viewers relating to a platitude of nuances that stay genuine to Subreen’s identity while addressing intersectional elements of the human experience. This is not a traditional Western narrative of challenge and triumph but rather a grounding in the reality of enduring and nurturing life within your reach.
This story has the opportunity to evolve the American cinema-scape and benefit the Palestinian individual by offering a reflection of self. When we see ourselves in the art spaces of society we are offered another foothold in imagining the people we can grow to be. Subreen’s story is an inspiring one that deserves its place in view, and benefit, of audiences everywhere.
